June 9, 2009

Top News

State Budget Work Continues

The state budget discussions are progressing. The NC Education Forum reports Appropriations Co-Chairs were expected to make final budget adjustments over the weekend and House members will be asked to vote on a full budget proposal this week. The House Committee proposed budget packages spare no area of state government and included cuts ranging from over 20% in areas like Juvenile Justice to 15% in K-12 education.

At its June 2 meeting, the Wake County Board of Education approved a resolution urging the Wake County legislative delegation and the entire NC General Assembly to take all prudent measures to provide necessary resources to NC K-12 public schools and commit to maintaining the state’s progress in setting high standards, demanding accountability for success, and meeting students’ needs in an age of global competition, technological revolution, and lifelong learning. The resolution noted reductions in allotted funding contemplated by the General Assembly will inevitably lead to reductions in force at the school level that will significantly challenge the school system’s mission of learning and teaching for all children.

The NC PTA, the North Carolina Association of Educators, Association of School Administrators, the School Boards Association and the Public School Forum called on the General Assembly to balance program cuts with increased taxes to avoid deep cuts into education, health care and social programs. The primary message of the groups was that cutting the state’s way out of the recession would only lead to educational setbacks that would take years to recover from. You can read their news release here.

Dr. William Harrison, CEO of the Department of Public Instruction and Chairman of the North Carolina State Board of Education, shared with state Senate leaders that he prefers lawmakers consider a temporary sales-tax increase or a tax hike on cigarettes and alcohol to buffer education from deep spending cuts. Harrison said, “The budget, as we see it now, will be devastating to public schools, and I think it’s time we consider another source of revenue.” He expressed concern that the proposed budget reductions in the public schools would send education back 20 or 30 years in the process.

Effort to Draft Common National Education Standards

NC Gov. Bev Perdue, State Board of Education Chairman and CEO Bill Harrison and State Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson have announced that North Carolina has joined 48 other states in a national effort to develop a common core of state education standards. Gov. Perdue, Dr. Harrison, and Dr. Atkinson have signed and submitted a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that enables the state to formally join the initiative. The National Governors Association and the Council for Chief State School Officers have partnered to facilitate this state-led effort.

The new common core state standards in English language arts and mathematics for grades K-12 will be aligned with college and work expectations and will include rigorous content and skills. Standards will be internationally-benchmarked and based on research and best practices. The set of college and career ready standards should be completed by July while grade-by-grade standards work should be finished in December. Read the NC DPI news release here.

Twitter at NC State Board of Education

The latest information from the State Board of Education’s committee meetings as well as the meeting of the full Board will be available on Twitter. Vanessa Jeter, Director of Communications and Information Services at the Department of Public Instruction has begun providing constant updates on the board’s actions through the popular social networking site www.twitter.com . ‘Followers’, as they are called on the website are able to stay informed on the site as well as follow the agenda and action taken by the State Board of Education members.

You can receive Jeter’s updates by signing up as a Twitter member and then searching for North Carolina Board of Education. Click on follow and your Twitter page will receive the latest information from Jeter.

ISSUE:  WCPSS Graduates More Than 8,000 Students for 2009 The Wake County Public School System will award diplomas to 8,094 students in 21 ceremonies through Sunday, June 14. Listen to WCPSS Valedictorians Discuss Their Plans, Offer Advice Listen to Enloe High IB students celebrate Listen to Cary High ROTC Scholars WCPSS school by school graduation information Most of the students will continue their education in college, while others will enlist in the military or join the workforce. The class of 2009 earned $66,382,425 in scholarships, had 1,079 qualifying for the North Carolina Scholars program and more than 1,300 Honor Society graduates. Four high schools have senior classes with 500 or more students. Wakefield has 585. Enloe has 570. Leesville Road has 521. Garner High has 505. The 8,094 graduates this year compares with 7,684 last year. 18 high schools will hold graduation ceremonies at the civic center with most scheduled between Thursday, June 11 and Sunday, June 14. This year will mark the first graduation ceremonies for Holly Springs High and Panther Creek High. Both schools opened three years ago with ninth and tenth grade students. The schools added junior classes last year and seniors this year. Both schools have graduation ceremonies scheduled on June 14. On Friday, June 12, graduation ceremonies will be held at 11 a.m., 2 p.m., 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. On Saturday, June 13, graduation ceremonies will be held at 8 a.m., 11 a.m., 2 p.m., 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. On Sunday, June 14, graduation ceremonies will be held at 1 p.m., 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. All of these ceremonies will be at the civic center. The ceremonies will have an impact on parking and traffic near the civic center. Persons attending the ceremonies should give themselves plenty of time to get to parking and then to the civic center for the ceremony. School administrators and students have practiced the events and have scheduled them to provide proper time to recognize students and stay on schedule for the next ceremony. Several schools will hold ceremonies at other locations. Broughton High will continue its tradition of holding graduation in the school’s Holiday Gymnasium. It’s planned for 11 a.m., Thursday, June 11. Longview School and Phillips High will both hold ceremonies on June 10. Longview will hold ceremonies on its campus at 5:30 p.m. Phillips will hold ceremonies at 7 p.m. in Meymandi Hall. The WCPSS Security Department, Raleigh Police Department and Wake County Sheriff's Department will attend graduation ceremonies. Only persons with an admission ticket will be admitted to a graduation ceremony. In addition, no laptop computers, packages, artificial noisemakers, balloons, or other disruptive devices will be permitted. You can read the online report on WCPSS graduation ceremonies here.

More News

H1N1 Flu and Schools

Wake County school officials have been working closely with Wake County Human Services in responding to the H1N1 flu. Dr. Elizabeth Tilson, Wake's interim community health director, talked to the Board of Education at its meeting June 2 briefing them on this strain of the flu. Last Wednesday and Thursday, Wake County health officials notified the school system of two students with confirmed cases of the H1N1 flu and the school system followed the advice provided by health officials. Parents of students at Reedy Creek Middle and Laurel Park Elementary were provided information from health officials that the sick children are students at the schools and are isolated and recovering. Additional information regarding the H1N1 virus can be found here or at the Centers for Disease Control.

Board Approves Reduction In Force

At its June 2 meeting, the Board of Education approved a recommendation for a reduction in force of school construction program funded staff following Board Policy 4430. The action will affect 22 positions including eight current staff, one position that will be left vacant with an employee retiring June 30 and 13 positions that are currently vacant. The slowdown in the national economy has led to adjustments to the school construction program. These changes required administrators to review the school construction program management necessary in light of a reduced workload. This will reduce school construction program staffing from 90 positions to 68 positions.

Assuming the school construction program schedule approved by the school board on April 9, 2009, does not further change, it is anticipated the superintendent will make another request for reduction in force of 10 to 15 positions funded by the school construction program in October 2009 and a third request for reduction in force in early 2010.

Board approves School Improvement Plans

At its June 2 meeting, the Board of Education gave approval to the school improvement plans developed for the three new schools that opened for 2008-09. Laurel Park Elementary, Mills Park Elementary, and Sycamore Creek Elementary engaged in a year long process of crafting their School Improvement Plan. Each school’s instructional staff voted and approved their school’s plan. The plans are to be living documents schools use to focus their work.

Board reviews policy updates

At its meeting June 2, the Board of Education gave first reading approval to revisions of
Policy 1317: Open Meetings
Policy 1322: Agendas
Policy 1600: Board Member Orientation

The board gave final approval to revisions for
Policy 1040: Board-Superintendent Relations 
Policy 1325: Board Meeting News Coverage
Policy 1330: Disruption of Meetings

The review of board policies is based on a recommendation from the curriculum management audit.